Work · South Asian & Tibetan Philosophy
Yoga Sutra
195 aphorisms: yoga as the stilling of the mind’s fluctuations, the eight limbs, and the isolation (kaivalya) of pure consciousness.
Introduction
A compact text of short aphorisms in four chapters, on concentration (samadhi), practice (sadhana), extraordinary powers (vibhuti) and liberation (kaivalya). Its theoretical framework is close to Samkhya: pure consciousness (purusha) must be distinguished from nature (prakriti), to which the mind also belongs. The “eight limbs” lead from ethical restraints and observances through posture, breath control and withdrawal of the senses to concentration, meditation and samadhi. Posture (asana) receives only a few lines; the physical yoga practised today developed much later. The commentary attributed to Vyasa became inseparable from the text, and Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga (1896) helped make the Yoga Sutra known in the West.
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Connections
Taken up in
- India (Verifying All That the Indians Recount)1030 · al-Biruni
- Raja Yoga1896 · Swami Vivekananda
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